Update: Sony Officially Comments On Ueda's Status

Update: Sony's silence on the rumors regarding The Last Guardian creator Fumito Ueda's employment status with developer Team Ico was conspicuous, but now the company has come clean.

Gamasutra reports that it has received an official statement from Sony confirming Ueda's departure from the developer and the project. However, Sony also says that he is finishing his work on the game as a contractor and is "committed to completing" it – confirming the initial rumor.

Last week there was also a report that executive producer Yoshifusa Hayama had left Team Ico.

Update: Last week it was reported that Fumito Ueda, the creator of The Last Guardian, was finishing the game on a freelance capacity and that he had left Sony. Although we're no closer to the truth, Ueda has addressed the situation himself.

Ueda has recently tweeted in Japanese: "Recently, I have been getting a lot of questions…don’t worry, as usual, I’m still working hard on The Last Guardian." It's certainly not as in-depth of an update as we were hoping for, but on the bright side: At least half of the original rumor is true, and Ueda isn't totally abandoning the promising project.

Original Story: Fumito Ueda, creator of ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and the still-unreleased The Last Guardian, has reportedly left Sony.

According to sources speaking to Eurogamer, Ueda is currently finishing The Last Guardian in a freelance capacity. The unconfirmed report cites Ueda's exit as one of the reasons the game continues to remain unfinished. It says Ueda will begin work on "person projects" once The Last Guardian is complete.

The long-awaited PlayStation 3 exclusive was originally scheduled to ship this holiday, but Sony delayed the title until 2012.

A Sony spokesperson told Game Informer the company does not comment on rumor or speculation.